Expansible room structures



June 28, 1966 M. CALTHORPE 3,257,760

EXPANSIBLE ROOM STRUCTURES Filed May 2, 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVEN TOR.MAURICE CALTHORPE AT TORNE Y June 28, 1966 M. CALTHORPE EXPANS IBLE ROOMSTRUCTURES Filed May 2, 1965 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. MAURICECALTHORPE ATTORNEY June 28, 1966 M. CALTHORPE EXPANSIBLE ROOM STRUCTURESFiled May 2 1963 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 IL 1D F'l 9. 11

l lla IO'a 12' Ill 12' INVENTOR. MAURICE CALTHORPE g F W ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent 3,257,760 EXPANSIBLE ROOM STRUCTURES Maurice Calthorpe,14848 Manuella Ave.,

' Los Altos Hills, Calif. Filed May 2, 1963, Ser. No. 277,602 4 Claims.(Cl. 52-68) This invention relates to expansible room structures, andmore particularly to expansible room structures associated with mobilehousing units such as pick-up campers,.travel trailers, mobile homes andthe like.

Mobile housing units have become widely accepted and are now in use fora variety of purposes. However, it has been realized that mobile housingunits would enjoy even greater popularity if they could be adjusted toprovide extra housing space when needed and then collapsed to reduce theoverall sizeduring travel or storage.

A variety of proposals have been made in the past for designing mobilehousing units having the feature of adjustability. It is an object ofthis invention to provide a greatly improved expansible room structure.

More specifically an object of this invention is to provide a pick-upcamper or the like having an expansible room structure wherein theexpansible room structure is combined with a standard pick-up camper orthe like without requiring extensive modification of the standardconstruction.

A further object of the invention is to provide an expansible roomstructure which is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.

Another object of the invention is to provide an expansible roomstructure which is so simple to adjust that it can be easily expandedand collapsed by one person.

An additional object of the invention is to provide an expansible roomstructure which does not require the prior art use of telescoping beamsupports for movable panels.

Another object of the invention is to provide an expansible roomstructure which in collapsed condition adds only slightly to thedimensions of a conventional pickup camper or the like and yet does notoccupy any of the internal space of the conventional structure.

A further object of the invention is to provide an expansible roomstructure which can be used with stationary as well as mobile units andcan even be used per se to provide a detached room structure in anylocation for a wide variety of uses such as cabanas, portable campingunits, storage rooms and workshops.

Other and further objects and features of advantage will become apparentto those skilled in the art from a reading of the following detaileddescription which refers to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective outside view of the expansible room structureembodied in a pick-up camper combination and showing the structure incollapsed condition;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 but showing the structure inexpanded condition;

FIGURE 3 is a schematic perspective view of the interior of thestructure shown in expanded condition;

FIGURE 4 is a cross sectional view on line 44 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a view similar to FIGURE 4 but showing the structurepartially collapsed;

FIGURE 6 is a cross sectional view on line 6-6 of FIGURE 1, showing thestructure fully collapsed; 1

FIGURE 7 is a cross sectional view on line 77 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 8 is a view similar to FIGURE 7 but showing the structurepartially collapsed;

3,257,762 Patented June 28, 1966 FIGURE 9 is a cross-sectional view online 99 of FIGURE 1 showing the structure fully collapsed;

FIGURE 10 is a perspective view similar to FIGURE 2 but showing adetached design for the expansible room;

FIGURE 11 is a view similar to FIGURE 10 but showing the detachedstructure in collapsed condition;

FIGURE 12 is a front view of the detached structure; and

FIGURE 13 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the lower rear portion ofFIGURE 7.

Referring in more detail to the drawings, FIGURES 1 and 2 show a pick-upcamper comprising a vehicle body 1 having a conventional camper body 2mounted thereon and embodying an expansible room structure 3. The camperbody has the usual side door 4. As shown in FIGURE 3 the camper also hasthe usual unnumbered appointments and the usual rear wall 5. The onlymodification normally required in the conventional camper is to add aside door 4 if the camper is provided originally with the usual reardoor opening 6, or cut a rear doorway 6 if the camper is originallyprovided with a side door.

The expansible room 3 has a front wall structure 7 comprising arectangular frame made of right angle sections. The frame has sideportions 9 and 10 (FIGURES 1, 2 and 46), and top and bottom portions 11and 12 (FIGURES 1, 2 and 79). The side and top portions have projections9a, 10a, and 12a thereon which form a front portion. The bottom portionhas a downwardly projecting portion 12a. The frame is attached to therear wall 5 of the camper by a plurality of bolts 13 as designated inFIGURES 4 and 7.

The expansible room structure has two side walls each formed in twoequal sections 16, 17 and 18, 19. Each pair of sections is joinedtogether by a piano hinge 20, and each of the sections is preferablyprovided with a window '21. The forward side sections 16 and 18 areattached to the frame side portions 9a and 10a, respectively, by pianohinges 22. The rearward side sections 17 and 19 are attached to a rearor end wall 23 by hinges 24. Hinges 24 are preferably short hingeshaving easily removable pins 25 shown partly removed (FIGURE 7), all forreasons to be hereinafter explained. The unit consisting of the sidewall sections 1649 and the rear Wall 23 is a very important portion ofthe structure because it provides the basis for many of the advantagesof the overall structure, as will be hereinafter explained in moredetail.

The expansible room structure has a top wall or roof 29 attached to theframe top portion 11 by a piano hinge 30. A bottom wall or floor 31 isattached to the frame bottom portion 12 by a piano hinge 32. Supportmembers 33 and '34 are attached to the bottom of floor 31 by pianohinges 35 and are interconnected by tie bars 36 and 37 which arepivotally connected to the support members. The support members are heldin extended position by standard collapsible elbow braces 38 and 39,which are pivotally connected to the floor and the forward supportmembers.

In order to hold the roof 29 tightly down against the side and rearwalls, the roof has pivotally attached thereto a spring type or otherconventional latch 42 which engages a recess 43 in the rear wall, asshown best in FIGURE 7. In order to hold the side and rear walls firmlyin place, the side wall sections 16 and 18 are provided with aperturedbrackets 44, and easily removable pins 45 pass through the brackets andthrough matching holes 46 in the floor. Similarly, the rear wall 23 isprovided with an apertured bracket 47, and a pin 48 which extendsthrough a hole 49 in the floor.

The operation of the described structure will now be explained. Startingwith the structure in the expanded condition of FIGURES 4 and 7, latch42 is released, and pins 45 and 48 are removed. Then the roof is raisedslightly so that it does not bear downwardly on the side and rear walls,as shown in FIGURE 8. Preferably, the roof is held in raised position bya releasable brace, for example a brace bar 52 (FIGURE 8) havinginturned ends received in sockets in the roof and the frame side portion10. After this simple preparation, the rear wall is pushed forward tocollapse in one motion the unit consisting of the side and rear walls.The travel of the side and rear walls from expanded to collapsedcondition will be easily understood by reference in sequence to FIGURE 4through FIGURE 6 and to FIGURE 7 through FIGURE 9.

In order to facilitate the collapsing movement of the side and rearwalls, a plurality of rollers 53 are recessed in the bottom of the rearwall 23, one such roller being shown in FIGURES 7-9. The rollersprotrude just enough to raise the bottom edges of the side and rearwalls out of contact with the floor 31. The overlapping sections of thehinges 22 are given suificient spacing to provide for the requiredslight vertical movement. The end of floor 31 is recessed at 54 (FIGURE8) for each of the rollers, so that when the rear wall is fullyexpanded, the rollers 53 are out of engagement with the floor, and thebottom edges of the side and rear walls rest firmly on the surface ofthe floor. If desired, the rollers can run in a track attached to thefloor.

Once the side and rear walls have been collapsed into the position shownin FIGURES 6 and 9, the floor 31 is folded upwardly into'the positionshown in FIGURES 9 and 6. When the floor is folded into collapsedposition, the elbow braces 38 and 39 are released, and the supportmembers 33 and 34 are folded flush against the floor. Next the brace bar52 is removed, and the roof 29 is folded downwardly into the positionshown in FIG- URES 9 and 6. As shown in FIGURE 9, the floor is providedwith a bracket 55 so that the unit can be locked incollapsed position bythe latch 42.

In order to expand the structure, one simply repeats the collapsingsequence in reverse order. It will be noted in FIGURE 2 that the rearwall is provided with recessed brackets 56 having hinged handles 57which are grasped to pull the side and rear wall unit into expandedposition.

As shown in FIGURES 6 and 9 the collapsed structure occupies a thicknessconsisting of five walls, the support members, and the front frame, tomake a total of seven thicknesses. Since each of these thicknesses caneasily be under one inch, the total structure can add less than seveninches to the length of the camper. For example, the front frame can bemade of one-quarter inch metal, the walls can each be made of plywoodhaving a thin aluminum outer sheeting with a combined thickness of aboutone-half inch, and the supports 33 and 34 can be one-half inch plywood.Thus, the total thickness can be as little as about three andone-quarter inches, or even less depending on the wall strength desiredand types of materials employed. It should be understood that suitableweather stripping material may be attached to the top and bottom edgesof the side and rear walls to seal their contact with the top and bottomwalls. Similarly, weather stripping material can be attached to the rearedges of the side wall sections 17 and 19 to seal their abutment withthe rear wall. Also, waterproof material, such as rubberized fabric, maybe sealed across the piano hinges 2t) and 39. It should also beunderstood that the hinges 30 and 32 are preferably of the spring biasedtype to facilitate upward pivotal movement of the roof and floor.

As previously stated, the hinges 24 are only long enough to provide thenecessary pivotal connection between the side and rear walls, and areprovided with the easily removable pins 25. Thus, by simply removingpins 25, the side wall sections 17 and 19 can be usedv as doors, and thehinges 24 and pins 25 can serve as the door latches; in which case itwould be desirable for some purposes to provide a slot in the side wallsections to permit access to the pins from the outside of the room. Thefloor pins 45 and 48, and the roof latch 42 hold the walls 16, 18 and 23in place when one or both of the walls 17 and 19 are used as doors.Another feature of the invention is that the construction makes itpossible to attach a bed frame 60 to the rear wall 5 of the camper onone or both sides of the opening 6 without adding appreciable thicknessto the construction. The bed frame 60 is connectced, to wall 5 by apiano hinge 61 and carries its own support member 62 pivotally attachedby a hinge 63 and reinforced by an elbow brace 64.

When the expansible room structure of the invention is designed as adetached unit, only minor differences are required. FIGURES 10-12 showthe invention designed as a detached expansible room. In FIGURES 10-12the same reference numbers are used to identify parts which areidentical to FIGURES 1-9 and primed numbers are used to identifyslightly modified parts.

The detached room structure 3 is exactly the same as the attached roomstructure 3, except that there is no need for the support members 33 and34, and the front wall structure 7 is fully closed. Thus, it will benoted in FIGURE 12 that the front portion of the modified wall structure7' has the top portion 11a and the side portions 9a and 10a extended toform a completely closed front wall. Preferably the front wall isprovided with a door 68. The bottom portion 12 of the attached versionis revised to remove the downward projection shown in FIGURE 9 and isthus designated 12' in FIGURE 12. If it is desired to raise the detachedstructure off the ground, the downward projection on the bottom portion12 and the support members 33 and 34 can be retained, revised of courseto all be the same length.

Although preferred embodiments of the present invention are shown anddescribed herein, it is to be understood that modifications may !be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention asset forth in the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention, what is claimed as new and desiredto be secured by the Letters Patent is as follows:

1. An expansible housing structure comprising top, bottom, and rearwalls, two side walls, and a front wall structure, first hinge meansforming first pivot axes and connecting one end of each of said top andbottom walls to said front wall structure, said first hinge means beingpositioned so that said first pivot axes are spaced rearward from thefront of said front wall structure, second hinge means forming secondpivot axes connecting one end of each of said side walls to said frontwall structure, said second hinge means being positioned so that saidsecond pivot axes are forward of the hinge axes of said top and bottomwalls, third hinge means connecting the other ends of said side walls tothe sides of said rear wall, each of said side walls being made of twosections, fourth hinge means connecting each pair of said side wallsections together, rollers attached to the bottom of said rear wall,said rollers being engageable with said bottom wall when said bottomwall is folded down to a position substantially normal to the axis ofsaid hinge means connecting one end of said side walls to said frontwall structure, said bottom wall having recesses therein adjacent theend 'of the bottom wall remote from said hinge means for the bottomwall, and said rollers being receivable in said recesses when said rearwall is positioned adjacent said remote end of the folded down bottomwall.

2. An expansible housing structure as claimed in claim 1 furthercomprising releasable brace means attached to said top wall and frontwall structure for holding said top wall pivoted away from. said frontwall structure an amount sufiicient to prevent said top wall frominterfering with movement of said side and rear walls about theirrespective hinge means.

'3. An expansible housing structure as claimed in claim 11 in which thehinge means at one end of one of said side wall sections is releasable,and releasable latch means attached to the adjacent side wall sectionand to the bottom wall, said latch means holding said adjacent side wallfixed in a plane substantially normal to'said rear wall, whereby whensaid releasable hinge means is released said one side wall section isusable as a door.

4. An expansible housing structure comprising top, bottom and rearwalls, two side walls, and a front wall structure, hinge meansconnecting one end of each of said top and bottom walls to said frontwall structure, hinge means connecting one end of each of said sidewalls to said front wall structure, hinge means connecting the other endof each of said side walls to said rear wall, each of said side wallsbeing made of two sections, hinge means connecting each pair of saidside wall sections together, each of said hinge means forming a pivotaxis, the pivot axes of the hinge means for said side walls beingsubstantially parallel to each other, the pivot axes of the hinge meansfor said top and bottom walls being substantially parallel to each otherand substantially normal to the pivot axes of the hinge means for saidside walls, said front wall structure having a front portion andrearwardly projecting top and side portions on said front portion, thedistance between said side portions being greater than the width of saidrear wall and said side portions extending rearwardly far enough thatsaid rear wall is received between said side portions when said side andrear walls are fully collapsed toward said front wall, said hinge meansfor said top wall being positioned adjacent the rearward edge of saidrearwardly projecting top portion, the distance between the pivot axisfor said bottom wall and the rear surface of said front portion being 6substantially equal to the combined thickness of two of said twosections of one of the side walls plus the thickness of said rear wall,the pivot axis for said top Wall being positioned rearwardly of thepivot axis for said bottom wall, releasable latch means attached to saidtop wall and front wall structure for holding said top wall pivoted awayfrom said front wall structure an amount suffi-cient to prevent said topwall from interfering with movement of said side and rear Walls abouttheir respective hinge means, rollers attached to the bottom of saidrear wall, said rollers being eng-ageable with said bottom wall whensaid bottom wall is folded down to a position substantially normal tothe axis of said hinge means connecting one end .of said side walls tosaid front wall structure, said bottom wall having recesses thereinadjacent the end of the bottom wall remote from said hinge means for thebottom wall, and said rollers being receivable in said recesses whensaid rear wall is positioned adjacent said remote end of the folded downbottom wall.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,305,162 5/19'19Puff 296--26 1,375,212 4/1921 Crone 296--26 2,604,671 7/ 1952 Sherman etal. 5263 2,813,747 11/1957 Rice 5267 2,886,856 5/1959 Sun Kun Che 52692,907,077 10/1959 Pugsley 5232 FOREIGN PATENTS 637,543 3/1962 Canada.699,753 :1953 Great Britain. 6,560 3/1911 Great Britain.

FRANK L. ABBOTT, Primary Examiner.

E. J. WITMER, Examiner.

R. A. STENZ'EL, Assistant Examiner.

1. AN EXPANSIBLE HOUSING STRUCTURE COMPRISING TOP, BOTTOM, AND REARWALLS, TWO SIDE WALLS, AND A FRONT WALL STRUCTURE, FIRST HINGE MEANSFORMING FIRST PIVOT AXES AND CONNECTING ONE END OF EACH OF SAID TOP ANDBOTTOM WALLS TO SAID FRONT WALL STRUCTURE, SAID FIRST HINGE MEANS BEINGPOSITIONED SO THAT SAID FIRST PIVOT AXES ARE SPACED REARWARD FROM THEFRONT OF SAID FRONT WALL STRUCTURE, SECOND HINGE MEANS FORMING SECONDPIVOT AXES CONNECTING ONE END OF EACH OF SAID SIDE WALLS TO SAID FRONTWALL STRUCTURE, SAID SECOND HINGE MEANS BEING POSITIONED SO THAT SAIDSECOND PIVOT AXES ARE FORWARD OF THE HINGE AXES OF SAID TOP AND BOTTOMWALLS, THIRD HINGE MEANS CONNECTING THE OTHER ENDS OF SAID SIDE WALLS TOTHE SIDES OF SAID REAR WALL, EACH OF SAID SIDE WALLS BEING MADE OF TWOSECTIONS, FOURTH HINGE MEANS CONNECTING EACH PAIR OF SAID SIDE WALLSECTIONS TOGETHER, ROLLERS ATTACHED TO THE BOTTOM OF SAID REAR WALL,SAID ROLLERS BEING ENGAGEABLE WITH SAID BOTTOM WALL WHEN SAID BOTTOMWALL IS FOLDED DOWN TO A POSITION SUBSTANTIALLY NORMAL TO THE AXIS OFSAID HINGE MEANS CONNECTING ONE END OF SAID SIDE WALLS TO SAID FRONTWALL STRUCTURE, SAID BOTTOM WALL HAVING RECESSES THEREIN ADJACENT THEEND OF THE BOTTOM WALL REMOTE FROM SAID HINGE MEANS FOR THE BOTTOM WALL,AND SAID ROLLERS BEING RECEIVABLE IN SAID RECESSES WHEN SAID REAR WALLIS POSITIONED ADJACENT SAID REMOTE END OF THE FOLDED DOWN BOTTOM WALL.